ASU Football Week 4 Highlights: Back Up to Speed
After Arizona State’s disappointing loss to Missouri, college football pundits began to wonder, “Are the Sun Devils back on the same old treadmill?” Most ASU fans know the history of past years: win several promising home games, and then fall flat in crucial road contests.
With Saturday night’s 37-7 victory over Utah, Arizona State silenced the doubters. The team responded to Coach Todd Graham’s edicts (“own the ball,” “eliminate penalties”) to position itself squarely in the midst of the Pac-12 South race. Even Utah coach Kyle Whittingham was impressed. “I give all the credit to Arizona State,” he said. “They have a bunch of athletes. They’re fast. The front four on defense is physical. The back seven can run. The scheme offensively was very, very difficult to defend. Coach Graham has done a great job with those guys and they are playing very well right now.”
A few observations from the ASU-Utah match-up:
Chris Young and Will Sutton are rising defensive stars. Playing at the Sun Devils’ spur linebacker position, Young had eight tackles against the Utes, including 2.5 for loss. For the season, he has 8.5 tackles for loss — ranking fifth in the country — and leads the team with 32 total tackles. Junior defensive tackle Will Sutton also had another strong game, spending much of the evening in the Utah backfield. Sutton finished with four tackles (one for loss) and half a sack, and his continual pressure on quarterback Jon Hays resulted in a Keelan Johnson interception. Together, the two defensive standouts are drawing praise across the Pac-12 conference. National attention can’t be far behind.
ASU’s receiving corps is finally coming to life. In the Missouri game, ASU’s receivers struggled with tight coverage. Against Utah, however, they emerged as a true offensive weapon. Senior wide-out Rashad Ross had five catches for 87 yards and a touchdown. Ross averages 21.9 yards per reception and is finally demonstrating the skills that caught the eye of coaches during fall practice. “You look at the first couple of games and he had more catches than anybody, but none of them counted,” receivers coach DelVaughn Alexander said. “They were out of bounds or something like that. He did a lot of good things (Saturday), but it’s just the daily grind. That’s the thing we’re working on with this group.”
Taylor Kelly is becoming known as “Mr. Efficiency.” The sophomore quarterback from Eagle, Idaho, had his best game to date in a Sun Devil uniform, completing 19 of 26 passes for a 326 yards and three touchdowns. Kelly is climbing up the national passing efficiency charts with a 182.20 rating.
The Sun Devil kicking game remains a question mark. ASU fans had better hope that a future game does not come down to a field goal opportunity. Starter Alex Garoutte made a pair of 22-yard kicks and one from 43, but missed the uprights from 53 yards away. Backup Jon Mora subsequently missed from 40.
With Utah in the rear view mirror, Arizona State now shifts its focus to Saturday’s game against the California Golden Bears. The Sun Devils haven’t won at Berkeley since 1997. It will be interesting to see how Graham and Co. prepare for this critical Pac-12 match-up.